A Systematic Study of the Use of DL-Tartaric Acid in the Synthesis of Silica Materials Obtained by the Sol-Gel Method

SiO2 nanospheres and tubes obtained by sol–gel method

“…The interest for SiO 2 based nanotubes is connected to their potential application in several fields as catalysis, separation science, nanotechnology [2] or drug delivery [3].…”

One-step method for the self-assembly of metal nanoparticles onto facetted hollow silica tubes

“…Recently, it was found that simple organic molecules such as tartaric acid (racemic mixture) exhibit unique aggregation in solution and hence were used as structure directing agents to form facetted hollow silica tubes with the wall thicknesses on the order of nanometers. [13][14][15] However regardless of the several parameters that were explored in these studies, it was obvious that the product contained, in addition to the hollow silica tubes, other non-uniform structures involving spheres or ill-defined non-porous morphologies as unwanted byproducts. The formation of silica tubes is governed by coupling of two phenomena: (i) aggregation of ammonium tartrate and (ii) interaction of a hydrolyzed silica intermediate with the ammonium tartrate aggregate.…”

Probing the Cooperative Nature of the Conductive Components in Polystyrene/Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):Poly(styrene sulfonate)−Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites

“…The ultimate means to investigate the contribution of the CNTs in CNT-based composites containing a conductive polymer component would be to replace the CNTs with a nonconductive filler with a similar aspect ratio. Fillers such as boehmite fibers 11 and silica whiskers 12 come close to CNT dimensions, but they have vastly different surface chemistry, which is highly likely to induce altered morphologies. A second option is to use an alternative source of CNTs with similar aspect ratios, but simultaneously exhibiting poorer conductivities, due either to an increased number of defects or to a larger fraction of semiconducting tubes.…”